Here’s a photo I took this afternoon in our living room of Ellie May, the little blind-and-deaf Cocker Spaniel who came to us a couple of weeks ago. Her eyes were chronically painful and we had to have them removed, but she has recovered just fine from the surgery. The sutures are still in and will be taken out in another week. We picked up Ellie May the day after surgery at our vet clinic in Helena. From the moment she came back, she hasn’t left my side.
As I write this, she’s at my feet under the desk. In fact, she stays so close to me here in my office that I have to be very careful when I roll my chair back, because she’s frequently sleeping right up against the wheels. Even though there are plush dog beds on the floor, she’d rather lie on the linoleum next to the chair than be three feet away on a comfortable bed. Thus I’ve taken to pulling the dog beds right up alongside the chair to keep her on something soft.
I had to put her on the living room chair for the photo because I couldn’t get a decent shot of her otherwise; she’s always sacked out on the floor underneath my desk or trying to be right next to me. The only way we could get her to sit still in the chair long enough for the photo was the old "hold the cookie high" trick, where we waved a dog treat back and forth above her nose. The minute she thought the cookie was gone, so was she, climbing back down to get back to me.
Alayne said that this morning, while I was cleaning a poopy crate in one of the dog cottages, Ellie May thought I had gone into my office. Alayne heard her barking excitedly, and discovered Ellie May in here looking up at the empty chair, thinking I was in it and happy to have found me. Her tiny stub of a tail was wiggling away.
Hey, when you’re blind and deaf, you have to rely on your nose, and sometimes it can give you false positives! But most of the time her nose works great, and she follows me around the house just using her sense of smell. (Yes, I shower frequently!)
Tonight when I was cooking dinner, Ellie May was lying on the floor in the kitchen, so close I had to keep stepping over her to get to the sink or to the fridge. When we sat down to eat, she followed us over to the table and parked herself there. Wherever I am, she is. She doesn’t have separation anxiety — she doesn’t get upset and start chewing or doing anything destructive in my absence. She’ll look for me and if she finally realizes I’m not in the house, she’ll simply give up and wait until I return. Then she’s glued to me.
What’s interesting about this is that she had spent her entire life, as far as we know, living with a woman, so we expected her to bond with Alayne. But she chose me, and now I have a minion of my own!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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